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Loren didn’t go for the hug, and he didn’t say anything, either. He wouldn’t. Not until this was over because today was a bad day for both of us. The storm was raging, and the rain was coming down no cats, all dogs. But tomorrow would be better. It always was.

We raced toward the wall where I gave up my grip on Loren’s shirt to clasp his hand instead. He dragged his finger over the brick and mortar, cutting a hole in the universe. I sucked abreath and held it as he stepped forward then paused halfway between worlds. He looked back, and I understood the question he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

“I’m sure,” I told him.

I could have died right then. Vaporized. Burned alive. Blinked out of existence in the strange, interplanar shift. But I’d been yanked up to Heaven and now dragged down to Hell, and it turned out I was made of pretty tough stuff.

It didn’t feel good, though.

My arrival in Evander’s office in the sky had been overwhelming but pleasant, like when the X started hitting so hard I thought I might lift off. This was an entirely new mindfuck. It was dark, and heavy, and so low it felt like the world was sitting on my chest. I came through the other side in a daze, and I got that swoon in after all.

I toppled into Loren’s arms, and the intensity in his face as he stared down at me was everything. My protector. My partner, searching me so hard it was like he was trying look through my skin to make sure my insides were properly arranged. Other than my heart beating rapidly out of time, everything was fine.

For now, anyway.

“Look at you, still sweeping me off my feet,” I told him, then righted myself and took a look around.

The dark room was bathed in a fiery orange glow. The wall beside us was made of stone stacked to frame a wide, tray-like inset filled with licking tongues of flame. It gave modern gas fireplace meets medieval castle vibes, which I almost appreciated until I saw the rest of the space.

One entire side of the room was comprised of cages. The scuffed metal boxes were packed from floor to ceiling in a grid that towered over us. The sense of hopelessness and wretched captivity tangled with my own memories of being locked away, and I shrunk from the sight. Loren’s arm braced against myback, and I found myself leaning on him while a horrible realization settled on me.

This was the place. When Loren stayed gone for days at a time, when his mistress kept him from me, she put him here. In this gloomy room, in one of those cramped kennels.

They were empty now, but it was easy to envision Loren’s face peering through one of the barred doors, or to imagine the keening sound of a desperate whimper.

I’d only seen one room of Hell, and I already hated it.

“Oh, baby…” I murmured, then sought out Loren’s hand again.

It was a miserable scene, but I was about to change that. For Loren and every hound Hell had ever made. If I didn’t need to save my flames for Nero, I would have melted those cages down to mush. But with the archdemon eliminated, the kennels would stay empty for the rest of eternity.

I glanced around again and identified the nearest exit: an open doorway leading to a hall.

“That way?” I pointed toward it, and Loren nodded.

We hurried.

I’d survived my journey to Hell, and I needed that luck to hold until I reached my objective. Getting caught or even seen by demons other than Nero would sabotage our plan, but with corridors creating narrow one-ways from one place to the next, every turn felt like we were tunneling toward disaster.

“How much farther?” I whispered as we branched onto a particularly long passage lined with doors. The idea that one of them might open and some dreadful thing could step out made my pulse quicken, and I found myself leading the charge despite Loren being the one who knew the way.

He didn’t answer. He told me once his thoughts got like knots, tied so tight he couldn’t separate one from another. They tied his tongue, too. Kept him quiet, tethered to his own fears.

“It’s okay,” I murmured, keenly aware of how many times I’d said that in recent days. “I promise it’s gonna be okay.”

I gripped his hand. My palm was so sweaty it must have squelched, but neither of us let go. We’d been moving quickly but, as we neared the end of the hall, Loren slowed. I assumed it was to do with the lack of available turns, but a glance in his direction revealed a profound sense of dread.

Ahead of us, an elaborate brass knocker was affixed to the last door on the left. It looked like a demon all its own, leaking some kind of bloody liquid from its mouth. I would have hesitated to touch it under any circumstances, and now, realizing this was our destination, I drew up short.

“That’s it?” I motioned to the door.

Loren nodded.

There was more to say or ask, but none of it found a voice. We’d said everything already. Questions had been answered, assurances given, and decisions made. There was no going back. Only forward.

I cracked my neck from side to side and finally, reluctantly, released Loren’s hand. For this, I needed space. I needed air. I needed fire.

My fingers curled, burying my blunt fingernails in the creases of my palm.